Then and Now
by TiggerFace
Summary: Gamora and Nebula from pre-Guardians to the end of the movie. Things changed a lot over time. One-shot.


I own nothing. Ima stress this because a lot of the dialogue is exact. I OWN NOTHING.

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"It would be my honor."

"It will be your doom."

Nebula gritted her teeth. She couldn't lose control in front of Ronan, not if she wanted this mission. She had always thought Gamora was above Thanos's obvious stroking of her ego, but listening to her sister go on about how she was better for the job Nebula realized that that may not be true. Annoyance laced through her and she stepped forward again.

"Ronan already decreed-"

"Do not speak for me."

Gamora's look turned smug and Nebula gaped at Ronan. He had the same look Thanos always carried when Gamora started praising herself – one of smug satisfaction and careful calculation. She glared at her sister as Ronan agreed to send Gamora instead. She wanted to kill them.

_She had been kidnapped as a small child and grew up alone, being broken apart and built back up, tortured endlessly in order to make her stronger. Over time Nebula almost learned to welcome the addition of metal plates under her skin. It was a process that felt like death, but her opponents' shock and Thanos's pride when they proved stronger than organic skin gave her a twisted sort of happiness. Thanos kept his children apart until their adolescence when he started testing them against each other, making it clear that he was looking for which ones he would keep. Nebula defeated all her siblings with ease except one. Gamora was the only one who could hold her own against Nebula and it angered her to no end. She was Thanos's pride and joy, his successful experiment, but his looks of satisfaction were slowly shifting towards Gamora. _

"We know only that she had been captured. Gamora may yet retrieve the orb."

She closed her eyes and tried not to scream. Ronan was a fucking idiot if he honestly thought Gamora didn't have it already. Her sister didn't fail at anything she set out to do, even if it was betraying everyone. She tugged a wire a little too hard and hissed softly. At least now she knew why Gamora had been such a raging bitch but she was pissed that she had been left behind. Nebula had just as much desire to get out from under Thanos and Ronan's thumbs but apparently Gamora didn't give two shits about that.

"And apparently you have alienated my favorite daughter, Gamora," she reentered the conversation at the perfect time. Rolling her eyes at Thanos's attempts to hurt her (so that he couldn't see that it _did_ hurt her) she imagined killing them both. Gamora was only his favorite because she didn't have to sit there fixing herself after Thanos tore her apart and rewired her again. Gamora was his weapon, sleek and sharp and efficient. She was his machine, breaking down and constantly in need of updates.

She heard her name and the sour look on Ronan's face clued her into the power she had just been granted. "Thanks dad, sounds fair" she shot over her shoulder, the sarcasm heavy in her voice as she got up and moved away from his throne. She would pay for the attitude later she was sure, but she was done with both of them and their posturing. Brushing past Ronan she decided if she was going to piss off one of them, might as well try for both. Letting her disdain show she shoulder checked Ronan. "This is one fight you won't win. Let's head to the Kyln." She laughed to herself as he shook with anger.

_Gamora came to her one night, sauntering into her cell like she owned the place. Nebula glared from where she was seated on the bed doing repairs on her arm but didn't move. They eyed each other for a minute before Gamora finally spoke._

"_You know, I've always wondered what's under your skin." Her eyes shifted down. "Must be nice knowing that you can just fix yourself whenever something gets broken."  
Nebula laughed before closing the panel, restoring her arm to it's fake normal appearance. She stretched out on the bed with her back against the wall and considered her adopted sister.  
"The first fight I had after Thanos was done 'improving' me my opponent snapped my arm in two. Thanos had told me that if something like that happened I was built to be able to fix it in the moment and keep going. I believed him."  
"So he lied?"  
"Not completely. I was able to fix it. But the bastard didn't tell me how fucking painful it would be to feel the bones and plates move and grind against each other. I was so blindsided by that I almost got my head torn off. I lost and Thanos punished me for it."_

_Gamora's face blanched. "I wondered why you dodge a lot instead of just taking attacks."_

_Nebula hummed, narrowing her eyes at Gamora. "Don't think I wouldn't be too overcome by pain to kick your ass if you tried something like that."  
Gamora shook her head. "I would never. We need each other." _

_Nebula smirked. She sure as shit didn't need Gamora but it looked like she had some power over the princess ._

"The stone is in the furthest pod. Bring it down!" She ignored the nagging voice in her head that reminded her it had been Gamora that had gotten into that pod. Nebula would kill her if she had to but she couldn't pretend that she wanted to. She was slightly impressed by the creativity of the useless ruffians her sister had joined forces with but it didn't help as Gamora's pod was slowly forced out of Knowhere. Hearing her sister's plea for her help and promise to let Nebula stay with her group of 'good guys' took away any sympathy she had. Emotionless, she turned Gamora down.

"You are a disappointment sister. Out of all our siblings I hated you the least." She managed to stop herself from elaborating and revealing that Gamora choosing to betray her too hurt because her sister had essentially lumped her in with Thanos and Ronan.

"If Ronan gets the stone he will kill everyone!" There was desperation in Gamora's voice and Nebula wondered when Gamora had started caring about anyone but herself. But her sister wasn't quite correct.

"Not everyone. You will already be dead." And better by her hand than Thanos's or Ronan's. It'd be faster, kinder with her doing it like this.

But Nebula miscalculated, thinking it would be an instant death as the pod exploded and she wasn't prepared for the sight of Gamora floating through space. She found herself transfixed by it and there was a sudden desire to go to Gamora and have her back like she had been trained. She almost did until the light of the tractor beam from Ronan's ship reminded her that Gamora didn't have hers. She had the orb and Gamora had been punished. They were done here.

_It became constant, every night Gamora would come to her. They sometimes talked, comparing notes on Thanos and their other siblings while avoiding their childhoods and feelings in general. But usually they spent the time just sitting in silence, shoulder-to-shoulder until Gamora left again. In that time there would be touching, Gamora tracing the wires in Nebula's arm or drawing abstract patterns on her skin. It lasted a month before Nebula finally clued in. The next time Gamora came to her cell she kissed her._

Nebula had a bad feeling about this. Ronan and Thanos were posturing over the infinity stone and their own senses of importance, and she knew she would get stuck in the middle of an out of control power play. In that moment she had never hated Gamora more.

She had wondered briefly if Ronan would attempt to use the stone but had dismissed it as too idiotic for even him. Except here she was watching Ronan fight for control of it as he tried to one-up Thanos.

Looking into his glowing purple eyes she realized that Gamora had fucked up. Right in front of her was the opportunity for revenge. She smiled smugly before bowing her head slightly in response to Ronan's question of loyalty. "You see what he has turned me into. If you kill my father I will help you destroy a thousand Xandars." Sometimes she loved power hungry idiots.

_The armrest of Thanos's throne dug uncomfortably into Nebula's back as she arched against it but she ignored the pain in favor of wrapping her hands more tightly in Gamora's hair in order to pull her closer. She ground herself down onto Gamora's face, so close to the edge the circuits in her left eye were going haywire. Gamora's lips were wrapped around Nebula's clit and she had three fingers working furiously inside her while Nebula arched and moaned as her climax hit. Slumping down into the seat of the throne she offered Gamora a small grin as the assassin continued rubbing her fingers to help bring Nebula down while pushing her own body up towards Nebula's with her other hand to bring their lips together._

"_We don't have time for me before father gets back" Gamora murmured against her mouth._

_Nebula smirked. "Whoops."  
"Whoops indeed. You owe me sister."_

_Laughing Nebula pulled Gamora closer once more. "I'll make it up to you."_

The sensors of the ship started beeping and she whirled to Ronan. "We have been boarded." She didn't mean to let the panic through but her emotions were in turmoil. Gamora was here, somehow alive, and she still didn't know if she had it in her to kill her sister a second time.

_They were never sent on jobs together. As a pair they held too much of a threat and Thanos didn't trust anyone else enough to allow them to control that treat. So something was different about Ronan. They debated it the whole way to Ronan's ship and for the first week they were there, until Gamora suddenly avoided the subject. Every time Nebula brought it up she found herself pinned against the nearest surface, writhing under Nebula's mouth or hands. She knew her sister was distracting her, but they had never gotten the opportunity to fuck on a mission before and Gamora was so _good _at it. Against her better judgment she let it go. Her sister was allowed to have secrets and if it was important enough Gamora would tell her._

Their voices rang through the ship and the light from the walking tree light up their faces. Nebula curled her lip. They had been trained to be better than that. They were supposed to move silently through the dark, not like bumbling idiots who had never killed anyone. The big one's voice echoed through the space rambling about friendship and insulting them all as he did it. "This green whore, she is my-"

"Oh would you-" That was her sister, indignant to the last. Though the big dude wasn't wrong. She stepped forward and cut Gamora off.

"Gamora look what you have done. You traitorous-" _well that hurt like a bitch_. She lay on the floor steaming as "No one talks to my friends like that" rang over her head. She had always been taught to strike first without talking but Gamora threw her for a loop. Hearing Gamora tell the rest of them to go she closed her eyes against the pain as her body started snapping back together. Slowly straightening she saw her sister turn towards her and stop dead.

"Nebula please." Gamora's voice was pleading but it only helped her resolve. Her sister had lost the opportunity to get Nebula on her side. She swung.

_Gamora was staring at Ronan with an odd look on her face again. Walking up behind her hadn't gotten her attention so Nebula slung her arm across her sister's shoulders and shook her slightly. "If you wanna fuck him instead just say the word. I promise you won't hurt my feelings."  
Gamora whirled on her, mouth falling open. "What the fuck are you talking about?"_

_Nebula glared at her. "I'm not stupid. You're pulling away from me, talking to him and his goons more than you were, and disappearing constantly. And yes I know you don't actually want to fuck him but I'm getting the feeling you want nothing to do with me either."  
Gamora opened her mouth, her expression morphing into something like anguish. But she didn't say anything, just met Nebula's eyes for a moment before shaking her head and walking into the command room. Nebula watched her with a sinking feeling in her stomach before following. Not long after Ronan asked her to retrieve an orb._

The explosion as Ronan used the stone distracted them both and they whirled to look before Nebula gathered herself and attacked again . But she was growing tired of this, tired of working for people she hated and fighting people she loved. Shoving the javelin into Gamora's chest and watching the electricity flow through her Nebula suddenly felt sick. She wasn't supposed to ruin this body, she was supposed to worship it. Pulling back slightly, Gamora used the opportunity to kick her in the chest and she went tumbling out of the hole that had been blown in the ship's side. Extending her hand to catch against debris she looked up to see Gamora offering her own, begging her to fight with her against Ronan, arguing that he was insane – like Nebula didn't know. But Nebula was done. She had wanted a normal life, not to be a pawn for people with far too much power and she knew if she went with Gamora she would never get away from that role. Glaring at her sister she snarled, "You're both crazy" and disconnected her hand. Tossing the pilot out of the ship she landed on she knew she wasn't totally free. Thanos or Gamora would find her eventually. She wasn't sure which she dreaded more.

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A/N: So some of this was weird cause I couldn't bring myself to change the actual dialogue of the move (most if not all is word for word). Also cause it's late (as per usual) and I have no beta.


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